S7E3 – The Queens’ Court – Your Childhood Still Lives in Your Future

Understanding ACEs — What Your Childhood Still Tells You Today

In this episode, we break down Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and how the things you lived through before age 18 might still be shaping your health, decisions, and relationships today. We get real about the impact of abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction, why ACE scores matter, and how hyper-independence shows up as a trauma response. We also talk about how today’s stressors — like job loss, instability, and shutdowns — are creating new ACEs for our kids right now.

You’ll learn the protective factors that actually help adults heal: asking for help even when you don’t want to, doing the uncomfortable self-assessment work, and making your home safer and more trauma-informed during high-stress seasons. I also share my plan to launch a simple ACEs assessment app so listeners can take the 10-question tool and instantly access trauma-informed resources.

We close by previewing next week’s episode on grief, where Nicole dives into non-traditional losses and the real difference between acknowledging and accepting a loss.

Keywords: ACEs, Adverse Childhood Experiences, trauma-informed care, hyper-independence, generational trauma, grief, healing journey, mental health podcast, resilience, trauma recovery, protective factors